May 12-18
China
The former head of China's delegation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Ni Huizhong, was expelled from the Communist Party and dismissed from all his posts for violating party discipline and laws. The announcement said Ni used his position for personal gain and enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle. It also said: “Ni is two-faced, hypocritical, a political fraudster who privately possessed and read books with serious political issues, engaged in superstitious activities and also resisted organizational inspections.”
Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan (张展) was released from prison after serving four years for unauthorized reporting on the early outbreak of Covid-19 in Wuhan. A week after her release, on May 21, Zhang released a short video thanking her supporters. Her former lawyer said Zhang was still under the watch of police. Zhang traveled to Wuhan in early February 2020 shortly after it was locked down, and posted daily on social media about the situation in the city until she was detained in May 2020. She was convicted of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
The Supreme People's Court (SPC) released four typical cases (典型案例) to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the promulgation of the State Compensation Law. The cases include requests for state compensation following the exoneration of four men who were wrongfully convicted - Wu Chunhong, Zhang Hui, Zhang Gaoping, and Huge Jiletu - as well as a case involving illegal confiscation during criminal proceedings. The SPC said that since the law was implemented in 1995, courts have handled more than 318,000 cases brought under the law and awarded more than 7.5 billion yuan ($1.04 billion) in compensation.
The Coast Guard announced new administrative regulations authorizing its personnel to administratively detain foreigners suspected of trespassing in Chinese territorial waters for up to sixty days. The Procedural Regulations for Coast Guard Administrative Enforcement (《海警机构行政执法程序规定》 ) also authorize detention of persons suspected of endangering China’s national security interests. The Philippine government expressed alarm over the safety of its fishermen operating in waters controversially claimed by China within the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone. The regulations take effect June 15, 2024.
Chen Binhua, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said the government will take legal measures to punish persons who aggressively promote Taiwan independence. He spoke at a press briefing when asked about the incoming ruling team of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party. Taiwan’s current vice president, Lai Ching-te, won the presidential election in January and will be inaugurated on May 20. Chen said punitive measures will be taken against five individuals who “fabricate false information and spread rumors to smear the mainland.”
Major social media platforms including Tencent, Douyin, Kuaishou, Sina Weibo, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu issued statements pledging to crack down on content that flaunts wealth and promotes materialism. Accounts found violating the rules will be subject to removal and bans.
The Ministry of Veterans Affairs and the Ministry of Justice jointly issued guidelines to improve legal services for veterans. The guidelines call for establishment of volunteer teams of lawyers, notaries, and other legal professionals to provide legal advice, dispute resolution, and other kinds of legal services in cooperation with existing veterans' service centers.
Hong Kong
Chief Executive John Lee demanded more information from British authorities about the arrest of three men accused of aiding Hong Kong’s intelligence service. One of the three is the office manager of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London and a former Hong Kong police officer. The men are accused of agreeing to engage in information gathering, surveillance, and deception between December 2023 and May 2024, and of forcing entry into a residence. Lee and the Chinese government said the charges were unfounded.
YouTube and Google blocked Hong Kong-based users' access to videos of the song “Glory to Hong Kong” after the Court of Appeal issued an injunction barring “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing” the song with seditious intent. A YouTube spokesperson said the company is considering an appeal.
A group of current and former politicians from nine countries asked to be called as witnesses in the ongoing trial of former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai. In a joint letter, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China said its members have been cited more than 50 times during Lai's trial on charges of sedition and collusion with foreign countries, but have not been approached by the authorities to testify.
Japan
The Tokyo District Court ordered ACG, a Tokyo-based glass manufacturer, to pay 3.7 million yen ($23,660) in compensation to a female clerical worker for indirectly discriminating against women in its housing benefits policy. ACG gave housing benefits only to career-track employees, who in fact were all male, and denied them to clerical employees, who were mostly female. The court said that differential treatment of career-track and clerical employees was not discrimination, but the fact that the benefits in practice applied only to men constituted indirect discrimination.
The upper house of Japan’s legislature approved a revision to the country’s civil code that will allow divorced parents the option of joint child custody. Under current law, child custody is granted to only one divorced parent, almost always the mother, who rarely receives child support from the father. The lower house approved the revision in April; it will take effect in 2026.
A corporate whistleblower sued Otsuka Food for alleged retaliation after he reported to the Shiga Prefecture government that the company had failed to recall products that used non-food grade bags. The whistleblower, who was responsible for quality control at the company’s Shiga plant, also submitted an internal report to the parent company alleging a cover-up of problems at the plant. He was later reassigned and given minimal work, which he said caused him to become depressed.
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa sued Meta Platforms Inc. for allowing fake ads that use his name and image to be posted on its social media platforms. He asked the court to issue an injunction against the ads, and demanded 1 yen in damages from the US company and its Japanese subsidiary. The ads, which used Maezawa's picture without his permission, promised high-return investments. Four victims of the ads have already sued the Japanese subsidiary.
Koreas
The Seoul High Court rejected doctors' efforts to block a government-ordered increase in the number of students admitted to medical schools. More than 12,000 interns and residents have been on strike since February in opposition to the increase. Eighteen plaintiffs including doctors, medical students, and would-be students asked the court to suspend the enrollment plan, but the court ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing to file an administrative lawsuit in the matter.
The South Korean Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeal's acquittal of a civilian military employee accused of criminal defamation of a superior officer. The employee was charged in 2023 after writing in a news article that the head of the military's forensic team may have mistakenly determined the nationality of a soldier's remains. A military court convicted the employee and sentenced him to six months in prison. The Supreme Court said his statements were not punishable because they were made in the public interest.
The government abruptly replaced the prosecutorial team in charge of an investigation into President Yoon Suk Yeol’s wife for accepting an expensive gift handbag. Lee Chang-soo, the new head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, which is conducting the investigation, and Prosecutor General Lee One-seok both said the investigation will follow the law. Lee Chang-soo rejected media descriptions of him as pro-Yoon. Prosecutors also questioned the giver of the gift, Korean-American pastor Choi Jae-yong, and said he could face criminal charges.
Taiwan
Members of the Legislative Yuan shoved and hit each other on the chamber floor after the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) tried to skip usual procedures and force a vote on bills that would increase the legislative body’s power over the executive branch. Among other things, the bills would require the president to make a report and state-of-the-union address to the legislature, and would allow the legislature to summon government officials for questioning by investigatory committees. Voters in January gave a plurality of seats to the KMT, which has joined with the TPP to form a majority, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) held onto the presidency.
Hundreds of young people staged a spontaneous late-night protest in front of the Legislative Yuan building following the clashes inside. Protesters chanted slogans and sang a song from the 2014 Sunflower Movement, in which students occupied the legislature’s building to stop the KMT-dominated body from approving a services trade agreement with Beijing. Some speakers accused the KMT of failing to learn the lessons of a decade earlier.
The Legislative Yuan amended the Names Act to allow indigenous people to write their names in their own language on official documents such as a birth certificate and household registration. Previously, they were required to use Chinese characters to write a version of their name.